TomTom has launched its latest GPS PND (portable navigation device) today and has enabled all of its 60 million PNDs to receive free daily map changes.
TomTom launched the Via 620 at Ku De Ta atop Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
The Via 620 (S$299) has the largest screen and resolution amongst the PNDs made by TomTom (Read about the details of the Via 620 here).
“The roads in Singapore change all the time, sometimes with roadworks springing up overnight. Driving to a destination may take longer than usual as the familiar routes could be closed overnight. Knowing about these changes before setting off can save drivers a lot of time and help reduce overall congestion,” says Valerie Cross, TomTom Public Relations Manager Asia Pacific.At the same time, free daily map changes via the TomTom Map Share community allows drivers to personalise the TomTom map on their own device and also share and receive map changes with the Map Share community around the world.
Map Share was previously only available on a limited number of TomTom devices.
Map Share technology enables drivers to keep the TomTom map on their device up to date with immediate changes in their area.
Drivers then have the choice to share those road changes with TomTom and the broader Map Share community.
Map Share enables people to quickly and easily report and share the most frequent road changes.
TomTom Via 620
More structural, long-term changes such as the addition of roads or roundabouts are validated and updated within TomTom’s maps and made available on a quarterly basis.
TomTom applies a hybrid approach to map-making that includes the combination of authoritative sources, such as field collection, government data or satellite imagery, with community input to ensure its maps accurately reflect reality.
From today, all TomTom Via and GO customers will be able to receive free daily map changes from the TomTom Map Share Community via a simple, free software update.
Daily map changes include the more dynamic, frequent changes that drivers are likely to encounter such as:
Changed speed limits
New street names
Blocked roads
New traffic directions
Altered turn restrictions
Drivers have control over which daily map changes they load onto their device.
They can choose to accept changes submitted by some or many other Map Share users, or only those verified by TomTom.
View TomTom’s video on Map Share and free daily updates below.
Here are some CommunicAsia2012 highlights of TomTom’s latest map products for the Asia Pacific region, which includes new coverage and features for automotive, enterprise and government customers.
TomTom expands mapping footprint in Asia Pacific region with map updates
But TomTom is gearing up for something big come July. And I mean BIG – literally! Check in on 5 July to find out more.
In the meantime, here are more details of TomTom’s latest map update release.
The introduction of Voice Maps in Thai and Bahasa Indonesian; the first Voice Maps product supporting tonal languages where different tones distinguish different meanings of a word.
Visualization enhanced with additional 3D Landmarks for important buildings, 2D building footprints and Junction Views for complex intersections throughout the region.
The debut of lane and signpost information added in inner-city areas of central Bangkok, enabling easier, more efficient and safer routing.
The street network in over 100 cities in India and nearly 83,000 km in China upgraded to full attribution, supporting the most demanding navigation applications.
Continuous coverage and content expansion and improvements in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Viet Nam.
The addition of nearly 1 million Address Points throughout the region to support accurate geocoding and navigation.
As usual, Apple has revealed a slew of statistics to illustrate how it is leading the field. Here are some of the more interesting numbers from WWDC 2012.
Apple and WWDC 2012 in numbers
There are now 650,000 apps in the App Store, out of which 225,000 are specific to the iPad.
In its four years of existence, 30 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple’s App Store, with US$5 billion for all app sales.
There are 400 million iTunes accounts with credit card. 140 million iMessage users send > 1 billion messages a day.
There are 365 million iOS devices out there, with 80% of these on the current latest iOS 5.
Apple contrast this with the Android’s profile, where slightly less than three-quarters of Android devices are still on Android 2.3.
To date, 26 million copies of Lion OS have been sold. Overall, there are 66 million Mac users.
A year ago, Steve Jobs made his last appearance at an Apple WWDC. This year, Tim Cook helms his first WWDC as Apple’s CEO.
Apple's WWDC 2012 is from 11-15 June in San Francisco.
The annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year is being held from June 11 – 15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. Tickets were sold out in a mere two hours when it went on sale in April.
Here’s a quick roundup of some of the revelations from the opening keynote presentation on first of the 5-day conference.
MacBooks / OS X Mountain Lion
Refreshed MacBook Air & Next-generation MacBook Pro ships today.
In comes Ivy Bridge processor and USB 3.0, out goes Ethernet and FireWire 800 ports, MacBook Air becomes thinner and lighter, MacBook Pro gets 60% faster graphics performance.
Retina display in MacBooks: 220ppi with 2880 x 1800 resolution.
Highest-resolution notebook display in the world.
Retina Display support: Final Cut Pro, Aperture and Diablo3 now supports 220ppi display.
AutoCad and Photoshop support in the works.
iPad-style Dictation is introduced to Mountain Lion for Macs.
Speak directly into native Apple software, Microsoft Word and Facebook.
Mac updates emails, notifications and photos, and backs itself up while charging.
OS X Mountain Lion available on Macs in July.
Free upgrade for new Mac purchases between now and arrival of the new OS.
iOS 6
iOS 6 unveiled Beta today, full release in the fall.
More than 200 improvements: launch apps with enhanced Siri, and it comes to iPads, FaceTime over cellular data.
Supported: iPhone 3GS and up, 2nd gen iPads and up, 4th gen iPod touch.
Enhanced Siri launches apps and comes to new iPads and eventually into cars.
Siri to get into the car with Eyes Free: demo: Toggle Siri on by tapping a button the steering wheel.
iOS 6 to get Do Not Disturb feature from Mountain Lion.
Select which push notifications to mute and which to stay on.
iOS 6 integrates more tightly with Facebook, Twitter and App Store.
Share directly from core apps like Maps, Photos and Safari.
Safari offers unified search across the web, browser history and bookmarks.
Following in Chrome’s footsteps.
iCloud Tabs syncs Safari web-browsing across all devices.
Simultaneously see all the tabs open on any device.“IOS 6 will include Apple’s own mobile mapping software to compete with software from Google. TomTom will supply Apple with map data and related content.” – statement from TomTom.
Enhanced Safari features.
Multitouch to help navigate tabs, upload images directly, Offline Reading List.
Passbook provides one-stop purchase of tickets and boarding passes.
No more paper QR-codes and tickets.
Apple replaces Google Maps with own Maps app.
Maps comes with Yelp integration and turn-by-turn navigation, and 3D.
TomTom will be at the PC Show 2012 at Suntec Singapore at Level 3 Concourse, Booth 304; and Level 4, Booth A2022.
Click on picture to view/download TomTom's PC Show 2012 brochures.
With the purchase of any TomTom GPS at the PC Show, customers will, for the first time ever, receive Lifetime Maps of South East Asia.
With road networks changing on average 15% a year, the map update service ensures that TomTom drivers enjoy a lifetime of free map updates – with four new maps of South East Asia released each year.
This means drivers will receive lifetime updates for the maps of: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Hong Kong & Macau, all 7 of which come pre-loaded on TomTom devices.
Click to enlarge to see TomTom is located at the PC Show 2012.
TomTom is also offering S$50 off the VIA 220 (S$149) & VIA 280 (S$229) as well as GO 2050 (S$349) & GO2050 World (S$429). The VIA 260 (S$149) will be discounted by S$40. Prices in brackets are AFTER discounts.
Here’s the brochure for TomTom’s PC Show 2012 promotions for in-car location and navigation products and services.
TomTom South East Asia V1.10 is now available in the iTunes store. Priced at US$69.99, existing V1.9 users can download the update for free.
TomTom App for iPhone/iPad South East Asia V1.10 available now on iTunes.
The latest version of the TomTom App integrates TomTom navigation with social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter – allowing users to navigate to friends, places and events more easily.
First previewed during CES 2012 in January, the TomTom navigation app for iPhone and iPad fully supports social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation.
The new version automatically plans routes based on information from Facebook events and places.
Additionally, drivers can use the app to share their destination and arrival time on Twitter, Facebook, by email and by SMS text.
The app offers regional coverage and the update includes the latest maps of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Brunei.
Following six months of research and rigorous tests, TomTom’s Navigation Laboratory (NavLab) has discovered that Darth Vader’s navigation voice increases children’s happiness in the car by over 68%.
More than 300 baby and toddler volunteers took parts in Project GAGA, the NavLab research project to find the perfect satnav voice for families with small children.
Of course this has been TomTom’s April Fools’ joke.
But jokes aside, I used the TomTom 750 GPS last year during my self-drive family holiday in Germany with two young kids in tow.
You won’t believe how much fun the kids had listening to the various voices providing turn-by-turn navigation instructions from the portable navigation device.
We tried out Bugs Bunny, Homer Simpsons and Ken with the Australian accent.
But it was Darth Vader and Yoda which battled it out for the top favourite spot. Eventually, we decided the dark lord had just that bit of an edge over the benevolent Jedi master.
To be honest, I had initially thought the celebrity voices feature was a useless gimmick.
But after we had so much fun, we really liked it. The whole family had such a laugh on those long drives imitating the accents and nuances of those voices.
We were like going “Turn around where possible … <heavy breathing> … I sense your lack of faith disturbing,” and “Take the left turn … <heavy breathing> … and face your destiny, you are coming over … <heavy breathing> … to the dark side”.
New Zealand-based Valerie Cross of TomTom told me during her visit to Singapore that the All Blacks did a recording too for TomTom – who had truckloads of fun improvising around the provided script.
TomTom will be at IT Show 2012 in Suntec Singapore at Level 6, Hall 603, Booth 6711; with promotional prices and free accessories for its GO and Via dedicated GPS navigation devices.
TomTom will be at Level 6, Hall 603, Booth 6711 during IT Show 2012.
TomTom will be offering an extra two-year South East Asia Map Update Service, as well as a 10% discount on all TomTom accessories with the purchase of a TomTom GO or Via GPS.
The latest version of the TomTom App (V1.10) integrates TomTom navigation with Facebook and Twitter allowing users to navigate to friends, places and events more easily.
The new TomTom App will be available within Q1 2012. Customers who already have the App (V1.9) will be able to download the new features for free.
TomTom App for iPhone/iPad integrates with Twitter and Facebook.
The TomTom app uses social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation.
The TomTom App for iPhone and iPad will be the first to use social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation.
It can automatically plan routes based on information from Facebook events, places and friends.
Drivers can also use the App to share their destination and arrival time on Twitter, Facebook, by email and SMS text.
The current TomTom App for iPhone/iPad (V1.9) already offers drivers:
The updated and accurate maps with no need for a mobile signal or data plan.
Free daily map changes from the TomTom community through Map Share.
Reliable arrival times at all times of day with IQ Routes.
Real-time camera alerts via TomTom Speed Cameras.
A powerful search with Google and Facebook.
Clear turn-by-turn guidance while on the phone thanks to iOS Multitasking support.
Seamless integration with contacts, photos, music, email and calendar.
TomTom study reveals the best and worst travel times on Singapore roads.
West and central parts of Singapore experience the largest traffic slowdowns during the morning peak hours.
TomTom did a study on driving times between the City and different suburbs during the peak hours.
The time taken to drive from each suburb to Raffles Place during peak hour in the morning (8-9am) was compared with the time taken during silent hours (1-5am) – when traffic was not a constraint to vehicle speed.
Traffic slowdowns during the evening peak hours in Singapore.
Similarly, the time taken to drive from Raffles Place to each suburb during the peak hour in the evening (5-7pm) was compared with the time taken during silent hours.
The spread of traffic degradation seems broader in the morning peak hours compared to the evening peak hours.
Clementi and Bukit Timah were found to suffer the greatest slow downs during the two peak hours compared to unobstructed driving timings between these two suburbs and the City.
New Zealand based Valerie Cross of TomTom Asia Pacific told me during her visit to Singapore that IQ Routes takes into consideration the different travel times for each road during different times of the day. “That’s because the actual travel speeds of each road varies throughout the day, and IQ Routes takes that into account.”Bishan and Jurong West were another two suburbs that experiences severe slowdowns during the peak hours.
For the evening peak hour, the overall spread of degradation was much smaller than during the morning peak hour.
Tampines is an interesting exception in that is the least affected by the morning peak hour, yet it was most severely affected during the evening peak hour.
There doesn’t seem to be any obvious reason to that.
TomTom derived the traffic data from the logs of portable navigation devices (PND) of its users when the latter connected their GPS devices to the Internet for updates.
The traffic data were extracted without any tags that could be used to identify the PND users.
Historic traffic data along roads are used during route planning by TomTom PNDs.
These historical traffic data is also used by TomTom to inject intelligence into the route planning algorithms of its PNDs, in the form of its IQ Routes feature.
Instead of planning routes based on jam-free traffic conditions and maximum road speed limits, IQ Routes take into consideration the historical and real travel timings of those roads considered for the routes for more accurate “fastest route” recommendations.
It’s as if the PND is a local choosing to drive further on a less congested road in order to avoid a 300m stretch that typically takes an hour due to peak hour traffic.
The next step beyond IQ Routes is live traffic information, which TomTom offers for 22 countries in the form of its HD Traffic feature.
Unfortunately, it is not available and for the moment, TomTom does not yet have any plans to introduce that to its Singapore users, because of the complexity of setting up its own live traffic sources and integration with other live traffic sources.
